It's going to be a big David and Goliath match-up. You look at the tradition and history of their program. They've been in the tournament twenty-some times, and their coach (Jack Parker) has been one of the greatest coaches in college hockey since I've been able to shave. |
Obviously, we're taking away a lot of positives for the season. We've got a national scoring leader, conference player of the year and we're one of the top scoring teams in the nation. I think we're seeing a constant improvement in this team. The way the season ended doesn't diminish what the accomplishments were this year. |
Over the course of my career there's been many that have been memorable...without reservation, the most memorable night I've ever had coaching was not winning the National Championship, that was a great night. But it probably was the night we played Bowling Green and won here to go to the Joe in our first year of our program. |
They were a much more physical team than we were. The back wall was an area where they really took it to us. |
They're a great hockey team, so it's going to be a challenge. Obviously, we both ended up tied in the league for a reason. We're both very similar hockey teams in ability and it will be a challenge to go in there... Winning four games on somebody else's ice in a season is a challenge. |
This to us is a gratifying accomplishment to be here. But it's certainly not the culmination of what we feel is our season, or the culmination of what we are hoping to do as a program. This is just the start. We talked about this after the selection show. It's great to have the opportunity to compete in the national tournament and be here to play. But frankly for us, it's one step in what we hope is a longer stay in the tournament. |
Those guys played awesome tonight. They were aggressive, they were quick - when they were on the ice they were threatening with frequency. |
We came up with this necklace that we could have designed and made so each player could get one. It's one of a kind, only made for us. |
We get it back to 3-2, and all of a sudden they come right back off that goal and score again. It took any momentum from the goal that got us back in it. Then it snowballs to 5-2, 6-2, and our bench sagged dramatically at that point. |
We're a pretty good goal-scoring team, top to bottom. Parse is the high profile guy, but we've got a group of gifted scorers. |
We've been aiming for this day for a long time since the inception of the program back in 1996-97. So nine years in, we're very proud of the fact that our program has reached a level in which our team is one of the last 16 competing in the nation. For us, that's a very big step. |
What happened up at Northern in February is ancient history. It's a whole new season, as everyone says. I know it sounds cliché, but the fact of the matter is, it's very true. You get into a situation in the playoffs where any kind of bounce can affect the outcome of the game. So everybody involved is going into this series as if we've never played there before. |
Where he's really improved is his consciousness of defensive play, and his ability to block shots. He's getting pucks out of our zone. He gets pucks in deep. His consciousness of playing team defense has improved dramatically. |
You can't diminish the contribution (Kaufmann) made tonight. Northern really turned the tables between the first and second period We were hemmed in our zone a lot, so he saw a lot of action down there and under the pressure he stood up very well. |
You don't replace the kind of production you get from a player like Bill Thomas. He is a one-of-a kind player. |